Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1887-09-02
UNlUCKY BUILDINGS.
New York Houses Noted for Fires, Suicides
and Other Calamities.

and Other Calamitfes.
II am not superstitious, as general
rule" said Liberty street real estate
dealer, as he cruised about the ex-
change looking for unwary buyers the
other day, ''but in the course of twenty
years experience in renting and selling
property in New York l have noticed
things that it seemed impossible to ex-
plain except by luck or fate. There
are some buildings in this city which,
for no apparent cause, are as sure to
make trouble for their owners and ten
ants as the sun is to shine. No amount
of care or prudence will make them
profitable. while buildings right next to
them. which are neglected by owners
and abused by tenants. will be lucky
all the time. There is building on
Church street where q suicide has oc-
Cured once in every twelve months
for years. 1t Is good building, light,
we'll constructed, desirable in every
way, but you can't get half the rents
for it that you can in the next building.
because it has the reputation of
being what people call 'hoodoo,
and every tenant who goes
into it is haunted by the fear that he is
going to fail or be burned out or lose
his mother-n-law. It's all on account
of those suicides. They have given it
bad name. and that's a thousand
than rats.
II know tenement-house on the
East side that is given over to fires.
The landlord has made the most eXtr u
ordinary efforts to prevent them, hired
watchmen, put in a fire-proofing. au-
tomato alarms. kept the police on the
alert, but fires are the rule in that
house, and now you can scarcely hire
people to live in it. 1t isn't incen-
diarism. 1 suppose it's what COO
scientific people would call mere coin
cidence, but most people would say it
was luck. The house is 'hoodooed' il
the minds of tenants, anyway.
''There are some houses which none
but undesirable tenants will occupy in
spite of every thing you can do.
know a man who recently came into
possession of fine building not 4;
stones throw from this exchang,
which had been given up to rag loft.
in spite of the efforts of the former
owner to get them out. He spent more
than $4,000 in fixing up the building
made over the rooms into handsome
offices, put in an elevator, and made
the rents low. The building is in a goo'
locality for offlce-renters, and in
short time it was full of desirable ten
ants. The man congratulated himsel
on his foresight and wisdom. In
month one tenant failed, anothe
skipped to Canada, another elope
with the landlady. The signs cam
down, the people went out, and in
) year the rag lofts were back again.
: don't know how to explain it, but 20
couldn't make money out of that build
ing to save your life. On the mex
corner was building not half as goo
Undesirable in any way, and the owne
, was clearing more than 800, 900 yea
from it.
Zone of the most expensive building
on lever Broadway is supposed to /
. .hoodooed, by the fact that part of tn
| land it stands on is owned by an oil
: miser, who won't sell, but exacts a
4 enormous rate for the lease. Anywa,
Y there are more failures in that bull,
J., ing than in any other on the stree
n tenants are continually turning out
: be defaulters, the elevator is contii
ually falling on somebody, people a
n always tnmbling downstairs ar
4 breaking their limbs. children dro
i out of the windows. signs slip fro
+ their places, the steam-heating a
It paratus is perpetually out of orde
and the owner has worried himself
e a feshless bone ~ Y Mail and E
e press.
k SALARIES IN JAPAN.